Real professionals wanted for new era

Real professionals wanted for new era

From athletes to white-collar employees, being professional
has become the catchphrase for a new era. Some say the country is
in a desperate race to catch up with the professional standards
of its neighbors before the opening up of the job market to all-
comers in 2003. The Jakarta Post's Bruce Emond and
Rita Widiadana look at what it takes to be professional.

JAKARTA (JP): "Bayu" has a nightly ritual in his job as the
supervisor of a bar at a major hotel.

It begins long before the first customers have arrived. He
runs a finger along counters to check for dust, makes an
inspection of the toilets and looks over the room to check
everything is in place.

He continues to keep tabs on business during the rest of the
night, giving pointers to his staff, making sure his regulars are
doing fine and helping new punters settle in. A stray napkin or
empty glass left to linger too long does not escape his eye.

To him, it's all part of doing his job and being professional.

A few kilometers across the city "John" has put in another
low-intensity day at the office. The expatriate makes it a habit
to arrive late, with standard excuses of traffic jams or, season
permitting, the rain.

He does the bare minimum to get by, frequently taking
cigarette breaks or checking his e-mail. His muted interest and
dismal lack of a work ethic are because he sees the job as merely
a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

Bayu and John are examples of how being professional is not
about one's job or position, but how one measures up to the task.
Competence, efficiency, integrity and conscientiousness are often
named as the qualities of a true professional.

You do not need to be a top executive to have the quality of a
professional. Everybody, from an athlete to a Cabinet minister,
could and should be a professional.

If you work in an office, it is not how many hours you put
into your job but what you do with your time that makes you
professional, according to Eileen Rachman, the director of
executive development agency Experd.

"You can spend 12 hours at your desk, but you might not be
using that time efficiently and professionally," she said. "You
may be talking to friends or playing computer games and karaoke,
and that is not using time efficiently. That's not professional."

Eileen said it was difficult to be professional "because a lot
of people's work habits in Indonesia are so bad ... there is a
lack of focus, direction, they are easily satisfied. It's a case
of asal jadi (as long as the work gets done)."

Indonesia is notorious for its low human resources index. It
is also rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Obstacles to being professional in some Indonesian workplaces
include poor management, low salaries and lack of organizational
structure, compounded by rampant corruption and a hierarchy in
which whoever has been around long enough often gets tipped for a
top position.

"We cannot just blame Indonesian people for lacking in
professionalism," Djisman Simanjuntak, executive director of
Prasetya Mulya business school, said. "There are some factors
which may shape one's sense of professionalism -- outside and
inside factors including educational and cultural background,
skills, moral values and attitudes."

Jewelry company promotion manager Rini A. Moerjono admitted
that she sometimes was caught between being professional and "our
eastern values ... we should be firm, but feelings enter into it
and it ends up that we can't say no."

Eileen said assertiveness was an important quality of being
professional, especially for managers.

"You can be obedient and a coward, or disciplined, obedient
and professional with an opinion. Those are the rules of the
game, but a lot of people only want to criticize others behind
their back."

A manager has to be professional enough to make a firm
decision, including one that might bruise egos, she added.

Dark scenario

The call to make professional habits in the workplace the rule
has gained urgency as the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), now less
than two and a half years away, gets closer. There is a dark
scenario of the country being flooded with expatriates from
neighboring countries -- and locals being left out in the cold.

Djisman said that Indonesians will have to work extremely hard
to prepare their best human resources in the so-called New
Economy era, where they will be part of the global community and
subject to international market rules.

"We have to totally change our mind-set, to reform our
education, social and economic systems to face global challenges,
something almost impossible for Indonesians to achieve for the
time being," he said.

The country's educational system, according to marketing
executive Anita Wells, has failed in instilling professional
values in both educators and their students. "Our system is
really terrible. We didn't get anything from 350 years under the
Dutch, and over 32 years (of the New Order) education was denied
to people to keep them oppressed."

Some of the slack is being picked up by business management
institutes which offer courses emphasizing professionalism.

The nagging question, however, is whether the qualities of
being professional, unlike everyday job skills, can be instilled.
Can a good work ethic, integrity, and concern about one's duties
be taught as an in-house office computer program can?

Administrators from several business institutes acknowledged
that environmental factors -- educational background,
personality, the examples set by others -- were important
contributors to whether someone is professional.

The institute's students are people whose professional
qualities are already in place -- or sadly lacking.

Even when the spirit is willing to design a thorough
organizational system, the flesh -- measured in the willingness
of human resources to carry it out -- can be woefully weak.

"The Army has the most well organized system in Indonesia;
there is a career path, it is all laid out for them," said
Eileen. "But the reality is that it doesn't happen that way."

There are those who argue that true professionals can only be
nurtured with salaries commensurate with their skills and tasks.

Eileen recognized the problem of poor salaries -- "nearly all
professionals in this country are underpaid" -- but said people
who were professional maintained their job integrity whatever the
situation.

She said there were changes in the younger generation. "They
know so much more about technology, so they can get jobs done
more efficiently and quicker."

The qualities of being professional, regardless of the job,
were brought home to Eileen by her son. She was initially taken
aback when he decided to become a deejay because she did not
consider entertainment to be a viable career option.

She admitted his professional approach to his career made her
eat her words.

"Now I see he is working 18-hour days, earning money, making
marketing plans. He is working consistently and doing a good job.
That's the foundation of being professional."